Author: Tricia

This morning while Nicolas napped, Abigail and Jonathan looked for something to do to amuse themselves. Their request for a video was denied, and their creative game of “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” as reenacted on our living room sofa, met with Mommy’s disapproval. So they put their minds to recreating yesterday’s church service, as seen through the eyes of a preschooler and a toddler. It will probably be insightful for you to know that at Town North we use instruments of widely varying types in our worship service, so our kids have been exposed to everything from organs to guitars, violins to tympani.

Out came the Fisher Price instruments: drums, maracas, xylophones, tambourines. Abigail (the leader) announced, “First, we sing the Gloria Patri!” Which they proceeded to do, in very loud voices, while they marched enthusiastically around our living area, through the foyer and back through the dining room. This was accompanied by much banging of the aforementioned percussive instruments. Suddenly, “Time to pray!” ordered the rather bossy older sister. Four little feet scurried to stand at the edge of the dining table, where with bowed heads they recited the Lord’s Prayer together. Then it was back to singing again. After insisting they each acquire new instruments for making noise, Abigail led them in a very grand version of the Doxology, complete with Hallelujahs throughout, more hearty marching and the cacophony of various instrumentation. Immediately following this second song, it was time again to pray the Lord’s Prayer.

This pattern went on for about 20 minutes: loud singing of various songs while rhythmically beating little instruments, always followed by a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. Until finally, perhaps tuckered out from so much singing and praying, little Jonathan meekly asked, “Can I go to nursery now?”

I had all but decided not to bother blogging about our week at home whilst Jay was in China, but his teaser on an earlier entry has left me no choice but to give an account. Plus I have had several inquiries from folks who are curious about my experiences during the China week. This then is an attempt to satisfy those curiosities!

Firstly however, I would like to politely disagree with Jay’s assessment of who had the harder week. Though ours was certainly momentous and hard in many ways, I do not believe he had the easier of the two times given he was in a foreign land, eating foreign duck feet, etc. When I think of my poor sick husband, thousands of miles away from home, sick and alone in his hotel room, worrying that he had come down with SARS and would not be able to leave China! Now that is stress!! I on the other hand had the support and presence of family and friends close at hand during our various little experiences. And even more importantly, despite the hardships during our week, I felt an overall sense of peace about everything, which in light of what happened, is quite amazing and none other than a tremendous blessing from the hand of God.

But, having made these disclaimors I will now attempt to greatly try your patience as I recount in detail the events of our week! To start things off nice and easy, I made the decision to go on a 240 mile road trip that we might attend our new niece’s baptism in Minco, OK. It seemed a grand undertaking (at least to me) to drive three kids by myself up to attend the church service early Sunday morning but we were really excited about seeing Charis baptized and the kids were ready to go and very thrilled at the prospect of visiting with their cousins. Though we had little sleep the night before on account of wakeups and power outages, I did get a couple solid hours and we had a fairly uneventful drive up except for bad storms the first hour. We arrived 45 minutes before the service began so we had time to change, and enjoy a small snack. Everyone that is except Abigail, who began telling me that she wasn’t feeling well, and judging by her refusal to eat food I guessed she was right. But on to church we went.
Continue reading “Meanwhile, Back On the Home Front…”

Though a bit belated with our notice, we rejoice with Mark and Jennifer upon the birth of their fourth child, Charis. Read all about her entry into the world on a “dark and stormy night” in Oklahoma. Welcome, Baby Charis, and may God grant you much grace. We look forward to meeting you soon!

Though this congratulations is a bit tardy, the intended recipient will no doubt be forgiving considering the whirlwind of activity which has accompanied the last several days surrounding her triumphant moment.

It is my distinct delight and honor to announce that after 8 years of hard work and dedication, my little sis Sandy has graduated from college. We are all immensely proud of her and her accomplishments, especially as she has held a full time job for seven out of those eight years in order to be able to continue to economically facilitate her schooling. She has balanced a full time job which often has made very high demands on her time with a the rigors of an undergraduate degree and excelled at both.

Anyway, it was a really full weekend; our parents dropped in from Saudi and our grandmother from Atlanta even flew in for the ceremonies! We have some pictures to share for those interested (to be posted shortly).

Great job, Sandy, we are very proud of you!!! May your ongoing job search be very successful!! That’s the beginning of a whole other story, I’m thinking….

Though we’re a little late with this, we wanted to post some pictures from last Sunday’s Easter celebration. After a beautiful and uplifting service in the morning (the highlight of which for our kids was the rare “Children’s Sermon”), we were blessed to be joined by Mom and Dad Horne and our good friends the Clemmons for a bountiful supper and evening together. It was a beautiful day so after dinner the guys hid 50+ plastic eggs in our yard for which the 4 older children proceeded to “hunt”. This was quite an interesting scene to watch as certain of them were very intent upon egg-finding while others quite obviously had more important matters to attend to, such as keeping their cute floppy hats atop their precious strawberry blonde heads! It was such a delightful way to spend our day and we hope you’ll enjoy sharing it vicariously with us by way of the photos.